Deserters at Indiana Camp Get Orientation and Review in Discharge Process

CAMP ATTERBURY, Sept. 23—The first relative] large group of Vietnam ers accepting President offer of limited amnesty arriving today at the racy processing center hurried!. established at this World IL and Korean War and rean war training

The first group of 11 ers, 10 of whom had been apprehended or turned themselves in before amnesty offer was made, one of whom presented self at the camp gate morning, started immediately ,through the discharge :clures.

A second group of 150, all whom had been in Army tody at Fort Ord, Calif., or Fort Knox, Ky., and were ble for clemency, arrived air at Indianapolis this noon and were driven the miles south to Camp Atterbury in chartered civilian buses.

The deserters were not quired to talk with reporters after they arrived unless wanted to.

One who chose to ‘ Thomas King, a 27‐year‐old sheetmeta'l worker who deserted first in 1967, after months of basic training. was caught a year later then escaped from the stockade at Indiantown Gap, Pa., January, 1969. He said he been living in a small town Michigan since then, using own name. He did not want give the name of the town, because he said the people there did not know he was deserter.

“I was opposed to the Vietnam war, but I was not a pacifist,” he said. “I deserted cause it was an illegal war. don't believe in any limited amnesty, but you have no choice. If you do not work for clemency, you would get five more years in the stockade.”

Mr. King, a stocky, articulate young man, said he had no choice except to sign the oath of allegiance, but he did not consider it necessary.

“I never considered myself being against the country, just against the war,” he declared.

He said he had no idea what kind of alternative service he would have to serve.

“I am not particuar about it. I just want to get started on it and get it over with,” he said.

Lecture and Lunch

Many of the other deserters who came to Camp Atterbury were more ,concerned about what kind of work they would have to do, where they would have to do it, and how long it would last, rather than what people would say about them, Mr. King said.

He said he and the men who came to the processing center with him had been treated as well here as they could hope to be.

“If there is any resentment by the military against us, they keep it to themselves,” he said.

Six other deserters brought here from Fort Knox who talked with reporters had deserted for other reasons than in protest against the war. All had been in Army custody for several weeks before the amnesty order. Some of these men had served in Vietnam before deserting and some had deserted twice or three times during their enlistments.

James Hatcher, 25, of Cleveland, deserted in 1970 after 16 months in Vietnam. He surrendered recently after being out of Work for several weeks and being unable to qualify for welfare.

“I'm pretty well happy about the way it's turning out,” he said. “We're just glad to be out it this way.”

Within minutes after the first group arrived, they were given brief orientation lecture, fed lunch in the temporary mess Stall, and assigned a bed in one the old beige wooden barracks.

A conference with military at officers followed. Then each man, escorted by Army noncommissioned officers, had physical examination and a review to determine whether was entitled to any back pay or accrued leave at the time he deserted.

Each deserter's case is being reviewed by a board of four senior officers, one each from Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. This board will determine the length of alternative service in some form of charitable or medical aid work that each must perform to earn the special clemency discharge.

‐By tomorrow, some of the deserters will be on their way the Selective Service center their choice, their transportation paid for by the Department of Defense. All except those with special conditions were expected to be processed and on their way in a maximum four days.

Draft evaders who have nevbeen in the armed services have been told to report directto their Selective Service boards. These boards will decide how long they must spend In alternative service to be (free of prosecution for evading !the draft.

Two other groups of about 150 each are expected here tomorrow and on Wednesday from military personnel control centers across the country.

The first deserters not under military control who have written in or telephoned to military centers are expected to arrive here Sunday to begin the clemency processing.

Once deserters arrive at the processing center here they are under no formal restrictions and are not being required to wear uniforms.

After reaffirming the oath of allegiance each took on induction, and signing an agreement to fulfill his alternative service, the deserters will be given undesirable discharges. Upon completion of the alternative service time, which may run from a few months to two years, a deserter's undesirable discharge will be changed to the special clemency discharge created by President Ford.

The undesirable discharge category is used ,regularly, by the armed services in terminating the enlistment of men or women for administrative rather than criminal reasons. Homosexuality, drug addiction, continued disorderly conduct are among the grounds for undesirable discharges.

A man discharged as undesirable does not necessarily lose his civil rights as might a’ serviceman who was given a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge by a general courtmartial. However, those with undesirable discharges lose most of the veteran's rights.

“We are telling these men that a clemency discharge is equivalent to an undesirable discharge except that each man has accepted the President's offer to work his way back through alternate service,” said Capt. Russell Fontenot, one of the legal assistance officers.

If a deserter does not accept the clemency offer, he continues to be subject to arrest and possible court‐martial for an indefinite number of years.

Amnesty Response Low

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (Reuters)—Less than 6 per cent of the Vietnam‐era deserters have asked about President Ford's limited clemency offer of a week ago, Defense Deparment figures show.

The Pentagon said today that only 739 of the 12,500 deserters had phoned or written asking about last offer.

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A version of this archives appears in print on September 24, 1974, on Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Deserters at Indiana Camp Get Orientation and Review in Discharge Process. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe